Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (21 page)

NILS STENSSON. After me? Ha-ha-ha. Nay, that is rare! And when they come and think they have Count Sture in their clutches — ha-ha-ha!

NILS LYKKE (gravely). —— Then farewell to your life.

NILS STENSSON. My —— ? But I am not Count Sture.

NILS LYKKE. You have called the people to arms. You have given seditious promises, and raised troubles in the land.

NILS STENSSON. Ay, but ‘twas only in jest!

NILS LYKKE. King Gustav will scarce look on the matter in that light.

NILS STENSSON. Truly, there is something in what you say. To think I could be such a madman ——
 
—— Well well, I’m not a dead man yet! You will protect me; and besides — the men-at-arms can scarce be at my heels.

NILS LYKKE. But what else have you to tell me?

NILS STENSSON. I? Nothing. When once I have given you the packet ——

NILS LYKKE (unguardedly). The packet?

NILS STENSSON. Ay, sure you know ——

NILS LYKKE. Ah, right, right; the papers from Peter Kanzler ——

NILS STENSSON. See, here they all are.

 (Takes out a packet from inside his doublet, and hands it to
      NILS LYKKE.)

NILS LYKKE (aside). Letters and papers for Olaf Skaktavl.
    (To NILS STENSSON.)
  The packet is open, I see. ‘Tis like you know what it contains?

NILS STENSSON. No, good sir; I am ill at reading writing; and
for reason good.

NILS LYKKE. I understand; you have given most care to the trade of arms. (Sits down by the table on the right, and runs through the papers.) Aha! Here is light enough and to spare on what is brewing. This small letter tied with a silken thread —— (Examines the address.) This too for Olaf Skaktavl. (Opens the letter, and glances through its contents.) From Peter Kanzler. I thought as much. (Reads under his breath.) “I am hard bested, for —— ; ay, sure enough; here it stands,—”Young Count Sture has been gathered to his fathers, even at the time fixed for the revolt to break forth”—” — but all may yet be made good — —” What now? (Reads on in astonishment.) “You must know, then, Olaf Skaktavl, that the young man who brings you this letter is a son of — —” Heaven and earth — can it be so? — Ay, by Christ’s blood, even so ‘tis written! (Glances at NILS STENSSON.) Can he be —— ? Ah, if it were so! (Reads on.) “I have nurtured him since he was a year old; but up to this day I have ever refused to give him back, trusting to have in him a sure hostage for Inger Gyldenlove’s faithfulness to us and to our friends. Yet in that respect he has been of but little service to us. You may marvel that I told you not this secret when you were with me here of late; therefore will I confess freely that I feared you might seize upon him, even as I had done. But now, when you have seen Lady Inger, and have doubtless assured yourself how loath she is to have a hand in our undertaking, you will see that ‘tis wisest to give her back her own as soon as may be. Well might it come to pass that in her joy and security and thankfulness—” — —” — that is now our last hope.” (Sits for awhile as though struck dumb with surprise; then exclaims in a low voice:) Aha, — what a letter! Gold would not buy it!

NILS STENSSON. ‘Tis plain I have brought you weighty tidings.
Ay, ay, — Peter Kanzler has many irons in the fire, folk say.

NILS LYKKE (to himself). What to do with all this? A thousand
paths are open to me —— Suppose I —— ? No, ‘twere to risk too
much. But if — ah, if I —— ? I will venture it.
    (Tears the letter across, crumples up the pieces, and hides
      them inside his doublet; puts back the other papers into
      the packet, which he sticks inside his belt; rises and says:)
A word, my friend!

NILS STENSSON. Well — your looks say that the game goes bravely.

NILS LYKKE. Ay, by my soul it does. You have given me a hand
of nought but court cards, — queens and knaves and ——

NILS STENSSON. But what of me, that have brought all these good
tidings? Have I nought more to do?

NILS LYKKE. You? Ay, that have you. You belong to the game.
You are a king — and king of trumps too.

NILS STENSSON. I a king? Oh, now I understand; you are thinking
of my exaltation ——

NILS LYKKE. Your exaltation?

NILS STENSSON. Ay; that which you foretold me, if King Gustav’s men got me in their clutches ——

(Makes a motion to indicate hanging.)

NILS LYKKE. True enough; — but let that trouble you no more. It now lies with yourself alone whether within a month you shall have the hempen noose or a chain of gold about your neck.

NILS STENSSON. A chain of gold? And it lies with me?

(NILS LYKKE nods.)

NILS STENSSON. Why then, the devil take musing! Do you tell me what I am to do.

NILS LYKKE. I will. But first you must swear me a solemn oath that no living creature in the wide world shall know what I am to tell you.

NILS STENSSON. Is that all? You shall have ten oaths if you will.

NILS LYKKE. Not so lightly, young Sir! It is no jesting matter.

NILS STENSSON. Well well; I am grave enough.

NILS LYKKE. In the Dales you called yourself a Count’s son; —
is’t not so?

NILS STENSSON. Nay — begin you now on that again? Have I not
made free confession ——

NILS LYKKE. You mistake me. What you said in the Dales was the
truth.

NILS STENSSON. The truth? What mean you by that? Tell me but —— !

NILS LYKKE. First your oath! The holiest, the most inviolable
you can swear.

NILS STENSSON. That you shall have. Yonder on the wall hangs
the picture of the Holy Virgin ——

NILS LYKKE. The Holy Virgin has grown impotent of late. Know
you not what the monk of Wittenberg maintains?

NILS STENSSON. Fie! how can you heed the monk of Wittenberg?
Peter Kanzler says he is a heretic.

NILS LYKKE. Nay, let us not wrangle concerning him. Here can I show you a saint will serve full well to make oath to. (Points to a picture hanging on one of the panels.) Come hither, — swear that you will be silent till I myself release your tongue — silent, as you hope for Heaven’s salvation for yourself and for the man whose picture hangs there.

NILS STENSSON (approaching the picture). I swear it — so help
me God’s holy word!
    (Falls back a step in amazement.)
But — Christ save me —— !

NILS LYKKE. What now?

NILS STENSSON. The picture —— ! Sure ‘tis myself!

NILS LYKKE. ‘Tis old Sten Sture, even as he lived and moved in his youthful years.

NILS STENSSON. Sten Sture! — And the likeness —— ? And — said you not I spoke the truth, when I called myself a Count’s son? Was’t not so?

NILS LYKKE. So it was.

NILS STENSSON. Ah, I have it, I have it! I am ——

NILS LYKKE. You are Sten Sture’s son, good Sir.

NILS STENSSON (with the quiet of amazement).
I
Sten Sture’s son!

NILS LYKKE. On the mother’s side too your blood is noble. Peter Kanzler spoke not the truth, if he said that a poor peasant woman was your mother.

NILS STENSSON. Oh strange, oh marvellous! — But can I believe —— ?

NILS LYKKE. You may believe all I tell you. But remember, all this will be merely your ruin, if you should forget what you swore to me by your father’s salvation.

NILS STENSSON. Forget it? Nay, that you may be sure I never shall. — But you to whom I have given my word, — tell me — who are you?

NILS LYKKE. My name is Nils Lykke.

NILS STENSSON (surprised). Nils Lykke? Surely not the Danish
Councillor?

NILS LYKKE. Even so.

NILS STENSSON. And it was you —— ? ‘Tis strange. How come you —— ?

NILS LYKKE. —— To be receiving missives from Peter Kanzler?
You marvel at that?

NILS STENSSON. I cannot deny it. He has ever named you as our
bitterest foe ——

NILS LYKKE. And therefore you mistrust me?

NILS STENSSON. Nay, not wholly that; but — well, the devil take musing!

NILS LYKKE. Well said. Go but your own way, and you are as sure of the halter as you are of a Count’s title and a chain of gold if you trust to me.

NILS STENSSON. That will I. My hand upon it, dear Sir! Do you but help me with good counsel as long as there is need; when counsel gives place to blows I shall look to myself.

NILS LYKKE. It is well. Come with me now into yonder chamber, and I will tell you how all these matters stand, and what you have still to do.

(Goes out to the right.)

NILS STENSSON (with a glance at the picture).
I
Sten Sture’s son! Oh, marvellous as a dream — !

(Goes out after NILS LYKKE.)

ACT FOURTH
.

(The Banquet Hall, as before, but without the supper-table.)

(BIORN, the major-domo, enters carrying a lighted branch-candlestick, and lighting in LADY INGER and OLAF SKAKTAVL by the second door, on the left. LADY INGER has a bundle of papers in her hand.)

LADY INGER (to BIORN). And you are sure my daughter spoke with the knight, here in the hall?

BIORN (putting down the branch-candlestick on the table on the left). Sure as may be. I met her even as she stepped into the passage.

LADY INGER. And she seemed greatly moved? Said you not so?

BIORN. She looked all pale and disturbed. I asked if she were sick; she answered not, but said: “Go to mother and tell her the knight sets forth ere daybreak; if she have letters or messages for him, beg her not to delay him needlessly.” And then she added somewhat that I heard not rightly.

LADY INGER. Did you not hear it at all?

BIORN. It sounded to me as though she said:—”I almost fear he has already stayed too long at Ostrat.”

LADY INGER. And the knight? Where is he?

BIORN. In his chamber belike, in the gate-wing.

LADY INGER. It is well. What I have to send by him is ready.
Go to him and say I await him here in the hall.

(BIORN goes out to the right.)

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Know you, Lady Inger,—’tis true that in such things I am blind as a mole; yet seems it to me as though — hm!

LADY INGER. Well?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. —— As though Nils Lykke loved your daughter.

LADY INGER. Then it seems you are not so blind after all; I am the more deceived if you be not right. Marked you not at supper how eagerly he listened to the least word I let fall concerning Elina?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. He forgot both food and drink.

LADY INGER. And our secret business as well.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, and what is more — the papers from Peter Kanzler.

LADY INGER. And from all this you conclude —— ?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. From all this I chiefly conclude that, as you know
Nils Lykke and the name he bears, especially as concerns women ——

LADY INGER. —— I should be right glad to know him outside my
gates?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay; and that as soon as may be.

LADY INGER (smiling). Nay — the case is just the contrary, Olaf
Skaktavl!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. How mean you?

LADY INGER. If things be as we both think, Nils Lykke must in nowise depart from Ostrat yet awhile.

OLAF SKAKTAVL (looks at her with disapproval). Are you beginning on crooked courses again, Lady Inger? What scheme have you now in your mind? Something that may increase your own power at the cost of our ——

LADY INGER. Oh this blindness, that makes you all unjust to me! I see well you think I purpose to make Nils Lykke my daughter’s husband. Were such a thought in my mind, why had I refused to take part in what is afoot in Sweden, when Nils Lykke and all the Danish crew seem willing to support it?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Then if it be not your wish to win him and bind him to you — what would you with him?

LADY INGER. I will tell you in few words. In a letter to me, Nils Lykke has spoken of the high fortune it were to be allied to our house; and I do not say but, for a moment, I let myself think of the matter.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, see you!

LADY INGER. To wed Nils Lykke to one of my house were doubtless a great step toward reconciling many jarring forces in our land.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Meseems your daughter Merete’s marriage with Vinzents Lunge might have taught you the cost of such a step as this. Scarce had my lord gained a firm footing in our midst, when he began to make free with both our goods and our rights ——

LADY INGER. I know it even too well, Olaf Skaktavl! But times there be when my thoughts are manifold and strange. I cannot impart them fully either to you or to any one else. Often I know not what were best for me. And yet — a second time to choose a Danish lord for a son-in-law, — nought but the uttermost need could drive me to that resource; and heaven be praised — things have not yet come to that!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. I am no wiser than before, Lady Inger; — why would you keep Nils Lykke at Ostrat?

LADY INGER (softly). Because I owe him an undying hate. Nils Lykke has done me deadlier wrong than any other man. I cannot tell you wherein it lies; but I shall never rest till I am avenged on him. See you not now? Say that Nils Lykke were to love my daughter — as meseems were like enough. I will persuade him to remain here; he shall learn to know Elina well. She is both fair and wise. — Ah if he should one day come before me, with hot love in his heart, to beg for her hand! Then — to chase him away like a hound; to drive him off with jibes and scorn; to make it known over all the land that Nils Lykke had come a-wooing to Ostrat in vain! I tell you I would give ten years of my life but to see that day!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. In faith and truth, Inger Gyldenlove — is this your purpose towards him?

LADY INGER. This and nought else, as sure as God lives! Trust me, Olaf Skaktavl, I mean honestly by my countrymen; but I am in no way my own master. Things there be that must be kept hidden, or ‘twere my death-blow. But let me once be safe on
that
side, and you shall see if I have forgotten the oath I swore by Knut Alfson’s corpse.

OLAF SKAKTAVL (shakes her by the hand). Thanks for those words! I am loath indeed to think evil of you. — Yet, touching your design towards this knight, methinks ‘tis a dangerous game you would play. What if you had misreckoned? What if your daughter —— ? ‘Tis said no woman can stand against this subtle devil.

LADY INGER. My daughter? Think you that she —— ? Nay, have no fear of that; I know Elina better. All she has heard of his renown has but made her hate him the more. You saw with your own eyes ——

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, but — a woman’s mind is shifting ground to
build on. ‘Twere best you looked well before you.

LADY INGER. That will I, be sure; I will watch them narrowly. But even were he to succeed in luring her into his toils, I have but to whisper two words in her ear, and ——

OLAF SKAKTAVL. What then?

LADY INGER. —— She will shrink from him as though he were sent by the foul Tempter himself. Hist, Olaf Skaktavl! Here he comes. Now be cautious.

(NILS LYKKE enters by the foremost door on the right.)

NILS LYKKE (approaches LADY INGER courteously). My noble hostess
has summoned me.

LADY INGER. I have learned through my daughter that you are
minded to leave us to-night.

NILS LYKKE. Even so, to my sorrow; — since my business at Ostrat
is over.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Not before I have the papers.

NILS LYKKE. True, true. I had well-nigh forgotten the weightiest part of my errand. ‘Twas the fault of our noble hostess. With such pleasant skill did she keep her guests in talk at the table ——

LADY INGER. That you no longer remembered what had brought you hither? I rejoice to hear it; For that was my design. Methought that if my guest, Nils Lykke, were to feel at ease in Ostrat, he must forget ——

NILS LYKKE. What, lady?

LADY INGER. —— First of all his errand — and then all that had gone before it.

NILS LYKKE (to OLAF SKAKTAVL, while he takes out the packet and hands it to him). The papers from Peter Kanzler. You will find them a full account of our partizans in Sweden.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is well.

 (Sits down by the table on the left, where he opens the packet
      and examines its contents.)

NILS LYKKE. And now, Lady Inger Gyldenlove — I know not that
aught remains to keep me here.

LADY INGER. Were it things of state alone that had brought us
together, you might be right. But I should be loath to think so.

NILS LYKKE. You would say —— ?

LADY INGER. I would say that ‘twas not alone as a Danish Councillor or as the ally of Peter Kanzler that Nils Lykke came to be my guest. — Do I err in fancying that somewhat you may have heard down in Denmark may have made you desirous of closer acquaintance with the Lady of Ostrat.

NILS LYKKE. Far be it from me to deny ——

OLAF SKAKTAVL (turning over the papers). Strange. No letter.

NILS LYKKE. —— Lady Inger Gyldenlove’s fame is all too widely spread that I should not long have been eager to see her face to face.

LADY INGER. So I thought. But what, then, is an hour’s jesting talk at the supper-table? Let us try to sweep away all that has separated us till now; it may well happen that the Nils Lykke I know may wipe out the grudge I bore the one I knew not. Prolong your stay here but a few days, Sir Councillor! I dare not persuade Olaf Skaktavl thereto, since his secret charge in Sweden calls him hence. But as for you, doubtless your sagacity has placed all things beforehand in such train, that your presence can scarce be needed. Trust me, your time shall not pass tediously with us; at least you will find me and my daughter heartily desirous to do all we may to pleasure you.

NILS LYKKE. I doubt neither your goodwill toward me nor your daughter’s; of that I have had full proof. And you will doubtless allow that the necessity which calls for my presence elsewhere must be more vital, since, despite your kindness, I must declare my longer stay at Ostrat impossible.

LADY INGER. Is it even so! — Know you, Sir Councillor, were I evilly disposed, I might fancy you had come to Ostrat to try a fall with me, and that, having lost, you like not to linger on the battlefield among the witnesses of your defeat.

NILS LYKKE (smiling). There might be some show of reason for such a reading of the case; but sure it is that as yet
I
hold not the battle lost.

LADY INGER. Be that as it may, it might at any rate be retrieved, if you would tarry some days with us. You see yourself, I am still doubting and wavering at the parting of the ways, — persuading my redoubtable assailant not to quit the field. — Well, to speak plainly, the thing is this: your alliance with the disaffected in Sweden still seems to me somewhat — ay, what shall I call it? — somewhat miraculous, Sir Councillor! I tell you this frankly, dear Sir! The thought that has moved the King’s Council to this secret step is in truth most politic; but it is strangely at variance with the deeds of certain of your countrymen in bygone years. Be not offended, then, if my trust in your fair promises needs to be somewhat strengthened ere I can place my whole welfare in your hands.

NILS LYKKE. A longer stay at Ostrat would scarce help towards that end; since I purpose not to make any further effort to shake your resolution.

LADY INGER. Then must I pity you from my heart. Ay, Sir Councillor—’tis true I stand here an unfriended widow; yet may you trust my word when I prophesy that this visit to Ostrat will strew your future path with thorns.

NILS LYKKE (with a smile). Is that your prophecy, Lady Inger?

LADY INGER. Truly it is! What can one say dear Sir? ‘Tis a calumnious age. Many a scurril knave will make scornful rhymes concerning you. Ere half a year is out, you will be all men’s fable; people will stop and gaze after you on the high roads; ‘twill be: “Look, look; there rides Sir Nils Lykke, that fared north to Ostrat to trap Inger Gyldenlove, and was caught in his own nets.” — Nay nay, why so impatient, Sir Knight! ‘Tis not that
I
think so; I do but forecast the thought of the malicious and evil-minded; and of them, alas! there are many. — Ay, ‘tis shame; but so it is — you will reap nought but mockery — mockery, because a woman was craftier than you. “Like a cunning fox,” men will say, “he crept into Ostrat; like a beaten hound he slunk away.” — And one thing more: think you not that Peter Kanzler and his friends will forswear your alliance, when ‘tis known that I venture not to fight under a standard borne by you?

NILS LYKKE. You speak wisely, lady! And so, to save myself from mockery — and further, to avoid breaking with all our dear friends in Sweden — I must needs ——

LADY INGER (hastily). —— prolong your stay at Ostrat?

OLAF SKAKTAVL (who has been listening). He is in the trap!